INTRODUCTION

 I originally travelled to Cambodia at the start of the new millenium to work as a volunteer and teach English to teenagers from the impoverished communities around Phnom Penh. I only intended to stay for around three months however towards the end of my stay one of my students came to my apartment and begged me to help him since he couldn’t afford to keep studying and dreamed of going to University some day. My fate was sealed. I only relied on a small superannuation pension to exist on, but even so I knew that I couldn’t turn my back on my new friends. I had no idea of what I was doing or how I was going to do it. All I knew was that I couldn’t walk away. And that’s how the Australia/Cambodia Youth Centre began.

I’ve never been a part of any organization or received any funding so one of my daughters came up with the idea of designing and selling gift sets of Evening shawls and scarves and donating all the proceeds to sponsor my small group of disadvantaged students.